Free Republic

In what critics call a classic case of the government working at cross purposes, Washington is forcing residents across the country to install mercury lighting inside their homes while phasing out mercury lighting outside homes to protect the environment. Yes, you read that right. In 2005, Congress passed a law banning mercury vapor streetlights – two years before it banned incandescent light bulbs in favor of mercury vapor compact florescent bulbs. Under the Energy Policy Act, signed by President Bush in August 2005, manufacturers cannot make or import ballasts for mercury vapor lights after Jan. 1, 2008. According to the...

President Barack Obama called former President George W. Bush Tuesday hours before he was set to deliver an Oval Office speech on the drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq, the White House said. Obama made the call aboard Air Force One on his way to Ft. Bliss, Tex., where he will visit U.S. troops. White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the “private” call lasted “a few minutes,” but declined to give further detail. Obama telephoned Bush in February 2009 before announcing his plans for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Former first lady Laura Bush has broken with her husband on the premier social issues of his administration and said she backs gay marriage and abortion. After more than eight years of silence on the controversial issues, Mrs. Bush said in an interview with CNN's Larry KingTuesday, that gay marriage and abortion were points of contention with her husband, former President George W. Bush. Mrs. Bush in recent weeks has been promoting her memoir "Spoken from the Heart," in which she writes about her life both before and after becoming first lady. In response to a question about gay marriage,...

NAPLES — The Bush brothers packed the house at the Naples Grande Beach Resort. Former President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, spoke Tuesday night as part of the Naples Town Hall Distinguished Speakers Series. They talked issues _ everything from health care and the Iraq war to budget deficits and Social Security reform. George W. Bush, the 43rd U.S. president, has stayed out of the spotlight, limiting his face-time in public since leaving the White House about a year ago. He and his brother – the state’s 43rd governor – addressed a...

President Barack Obama on Saturday brought together his White House predecessors, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton, for a joint appeal for victims of Haiti's devastating earthquake. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100116/ts_alt_afp/haitiquakeaidusobamabushclinton_20100116173918

<p>President Barack Obama hosted a pair of Bushes this morning in the Oval Office: former President George H.W. Bush and his son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.</p> <p>Two weeks ago, Jeb's brother, former President George W. Bush, was at the White House talking about Haiti relief with Obama and ex-President Bill Clinton.</p>

In new book, Michael Steele says the GOP should acknowledge where "we most glaringly compromised our principles" in the past decade and hold its elected officials accountable. WASHINGTON -- Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele offers a simple explanation for why the GOP may have lost touch with some Americans since the Ronald Reagan era: "We screwed up," he claims in a new book offering a blueprint for the party's resurgence. That "we" includes the last two Republican presidents and the most recent Republican candidate for president.

HONOLULU (AP) -- President Barack Obama has rejected his first piece of legislation from Congress, a stopgap spending bill that never had to take effect. The White House on Wednesday said Obama exercised his right to send back to the Capitol a temporary appropriations bill that lawmakers passed in case a winter storm about two weeks ago would have prevented them from approving a final measure to fund the Pentagon next year. The Dec. 19 blizzard didn't keep them away from the Capitol and they approved the $626 billion defense spending bill before the previous budget expired. The White House...

President and Mrs. Bush served our country with honor and dignity and remain committed to improving our nation and the world through the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The Center will be located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, a rising national university in a major metropolitan city in the heartland of America. The George W. Bush Presidential Center uniquely integrates the records of a national archive, the thematic exhibits of a presidential museum, and the intellectual capital of a research-based policy institute to advance ideas based on the core principles of the Bush Presidency: freedom,...

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney told a North Dakota radio audience this week that in his opinion it would be a mistake for the struggling Republican Party to change in any fundamental way, according to a report in Politico. “I think it would be a mistake for us to moderate,” Cheney said. “This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas … what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and constitutional principles. “You know, when you add all those things up, the idea that we ought to moderate basically means we ought...